The present invention relates generally to removal of valuable items from a secure enclosure, and more particularly to a device, method, and system for securely extracting and connectionless tracking of removal of deposited items from an automated teller machine/customer access terminal (ATM/CAT).
The operation of an automated teller machine/customer access terminal (ATM/CAT) involves two primary service tasks, which are typically performed by service personnel, also referred to as couriers, contracted, for example, by a financial institution operating the ATM/CAT. A first primary service task is loading cash into the ATM/CAT for subsequent dispensing to customers. A second primary service task involved in the operation of an ATM/CAT is removing deposited items from the ATM/CAT that have been deposited into the ATM/CAT by customers.
Typically, a customer making a deposit at an ATM/CAT begins by placing the items to be deposited into an envelope. Generally, customer deposits consist of checks and/or paper currency, which are contained in this envelope. This envelope is usually supplied by the financial institution that operates the ATM/CAT. The deposited envelopes or items must be removed periodically from the ATM/CAT, particularly because they must be physically obtained in order to start the process of clearing the checks that are contained in the envelopes, or other deposited items, as soon as possible. Thus, it is typically required that a service person, with access to the inside of the secure safe of the ATM/CAT, obtain these deposited items daily.
Generally, the removal of customer deposited items from the ATM/CAT must be performed more frequently than the replenishment of cash into the ATM/CAT. For example, the customer deposited items may be removed daily or may be legally required to be removed, for example, every 24 hours, while the replenishment of cash to the ATM/CAT may be performed weekly. Thus, a service person must unlock and open the door of the ATM/CAT safe daily, in most cases, only to remove the customer deposited items.
ATMs/CATs typically store the cash that is to be dispensed to customers within cash cassettes inside a cash dispensing mechanism, all inside the secure safe of the ATM/CAT. Customer deposits are typically stored in a storage bin, which is part of a separate mechanism, inside the same safe. In order to access the storage area of the deposited items, a service person typically opens a door on the secure safe, and thus has physical access to both the deposited items in the storage bin, as well as the cash cassettes installed in the cash dispensing mechanism.
Currently, ATM/CAT enclosures typically include a secure safe that has a door which is equipped with a combination lock or other lock. The ATM/CAT also typically contains a mechanism which, under the control of a processor in the ATM/CAT, transports a customer""s deposit from an entry slot in the front of the ATM/CAT to a storage bin inside the secure safe. Deposited items are transported into the storage bin, where they remain until a service person subsequently opens the safe door to retrieve the deposited items.
There are currently several elements of safety risks to service personnel, as well as a risk of financial loss to the financial institution, operating presently available ATMs/CATs. For example, the service person is exposed to some risk of possible attack in opening the safe door to retrieve deposited items. A potential thief who observes the service person open the safe door may take advantage of the opportunity to overtake the service person while the safe door is open and remove cash or customer deposited items from the safe or from the service person.
Further, the service person needs knowledge of the combination of the safe door lock to open the door. This knowledge puts the service person at risk of being taken hostage by someone attempting to unlawfully open the ATM/CAT safe door in order to remove items, such as cash or customer deposited items, from the safe. Additionally, a dishonest service person may be tempted to secretly remove and unlawfully misappropriate cash from the cash containers installed in the mechanism used for dispensing cash.
In addition, there is an expense associated with secure maintenance of combinations for safe door locks for multiple ATMs/CATs. Typically, the service person visits several locations where ATMs/CATs are located and, over the course of a day, removes the deposited items from each ATM/CAT. Thus, the service person must possess the combinations to many different ATMs/CATs. The secure maintenance of these combinations, by both the service person and the financial institution operating the ATMs/CATs, is a significant cost to the financial institution.
Thus, these service tasks associated with currently available ATMs/CATs, that require the physical opening of the ATM/CAT in order to perform the tasks, present serious risks of potential theft or other intrusion while the ATM/CAT is open, as well as serious safety risks to service persons in performing the tasks.
It is a feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method, and system for securely and safely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT.
It is a further feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT utilizing, for example, a specially added slot for the ATM/CAT to facilitate removal of items from the ATM/CAT.
It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which makes use, for example, of a deposit slot in both the ATM/CAT wall and the safe wall.
It is an additional feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which includes, for example, slots in the front of the ATM/CAT for front-loading ATMs/CATs and in the rear of the ATM/CAT for rear-loading ATMs/CATs.
It is a still further feature and advantage of the present invention to provide device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which utilizes, for example, a specially adapted deposit slot for removal of items from the ATM/CAT via the ATM/CAT deposit slot.
It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which makes use, for example, of a motorized transport belt located in the bottom of the ATM/CAT safe for transfer of the items from the safe.
It is an additional feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which utilizes, for example, a motor, sensors, and control electronics to activate the transport belt of the ATM/CAT.
It is a further feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which includes, for example, a secured transfer bin for receiving transferred items from the ATM/CAT.
It is an additional feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which makes use, for example, of a secured transfer bin that is dockable to the ATM/CAT.
It is still an additional feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which enables secure access and control of the ATM/CAT for the service person during contents transfer and removal of contents of the ATM/CAT.
It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system of securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, utilizing, for example, an access card and personal identification number (PIN) for the service person to assure secure access and control of the ATM/CAT during transfer and removal of contents.
It is a further feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which includes emergency measures for an operator in case of emergency during transfer and removal of ATM/CAT contents.
It is a still further feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which enables orderly stacking items deposited within the ATM/CAT in order to facilitate orderly extraction of the items.
It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which enables counting and tracking of items transferred or removed from the ATM/CAT.
It is still another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which saves money in armored pickup costs, producing a significant commercial savings to financial institutions, such as banks, who operate the ATMs/CATs.
It is an additional feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which is usable with existing ATMs/CATs having either front or rear access via economical field retrofit.
It is still an additional feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which is implemented with minimal modification to the existing ATM/CAT.
It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, that is implemented without requiring data connection to the ATM/CAT.
It is still another features and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, that enables secure retrieval of items from the depository retrieval mechanism, such as by use of a physical key, a wired electronic key, a smart card, a magnetic stripe card and PIN, an optical stripe, or wireless or other remote sensing device.
It is an additional feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which makes use, for example, of a secure access device, such as a transponder or other secure access device attachable to the deposit transfer bin.
It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which utilizes, for example, a transponder or other secure access device for remote identification of the transfer bin for auditing and tracking.
It is a further feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a device, method and system for securely removing or transferring the contents of an ATM/CAT, which enables auditing of the number and value of the deposited items.
To achieve the stated and other features, advantages and objects, an embodiment of the present invention makes use of computer hardware and software applications to provide a method and system for extracting one or more deposited items from a secure enclosure, such as the envelope bin of a safe of an automated teller machine or customer access terminal (ATM/CAT). An embodiment of the present invention utilizes, for example, one or more secure access devices, a card device, one or more transponder devices, an input device, one or more control mechanisms, one or more transport mechanisms, such as a motor driven belt transport mechanism.
In an embodiment of the present invention, a service person enters a retrieval request at the ATM/CAT, which is received by a control device for the secure enclosure; the control device automatically opens an access port of the secure enclosure; and at least one deposited item is automatically transported from the secure enclosure through the opened access port.
An embodiment of the present invention includes, for example, a secure access device associated with the secure enclosure, which automatically verifies a retrieval access authorization for the service person. Verification of the retrieval access authorization for the service person includes, for example, automatically verifying the authorization with a card in a card device associated with the secure enclosure, such as with identification data stored on a magnetic stripe of the card.
In an embodiment of the present invention, verification of the retrieval access authorization for the service person also includes, for example, automatically verifying the service person""s authorization with a transponder device associated with or disposed within the secure enclosure. Further, the transponder device includes, for example, a transponder tag in the custody of the service person or a transponder device of a secured container, such as a secured transfer bin.
An embodiment of the present invention includes, for example, an input device, such as a keypad or touchscreen device, which receives the retrieval request and automatically sends the request, for example, to the control device. In turn, the control device automatically activates a mechanism associated with the access port, and the control mechanism automatically opens a shutter associated with the access port of the secure enclosure, such as the envelope bin of the ATM/CAT safe.
In an embodiment of the present invention, one or more deposited items are automatically transported out of the secure enclosure through the opened access port, which is disposed on the front of the secure enclosure for a front access ATM/CAT or the rear of the secure enclosure for a rear access ATM/CAT. The one or more deposited items are automatically transported through the access port by a transport mechanism, such as a motor driven belt transport mechanism, which is automatically activated by the control device.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the one or more deposited items are automatically transported by the transport mechanism from a stack of deposited items in the secure enclosure. The stack of deposited items is automatically formed by receiving and guiding a plurality of deposited items into a stacking location within the secure enclosure, such as the envelope storage bin of the ATM/CAT safe. The plurality of deposited items are received through a front deposit entry slot of a front service ATM/CAT or a rear deposit entry slot of a rear service ATM/CAT into a depository mechanism associated with the secure enclosure.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the deposited item or items are automatically transported from the secure enclosure through the opened access port, for example, to be retrieved by a service person, or to be received, for example, in a container having, for example a protruding section docked with the access port. In the latter case, the deposited item or items are automatically guided through the protruding section, for example, into a stacking position within the container, such as the secured transfer bin.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the control device also automatically activates a control mechanism associated with the access port to close the access port by closing the shutter associated with the access port. Additionally, an embodiment of the present invention automatically tracks the deposited item or items, for example, by comparing data related to receipt of the deposited item or items in the secure enclosure with data relating to transporting the deposited item or items from the secure enclosure.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention.